a. [ad. med.L. transmūtābilis (Albertus Magnus, a. 1250), f. L. transmūt-āre to TRANSMUTE: cf. mutable.] Capable of being transmuted or changed into something else.
1460–70. Bk. Quintessence, I. 14. Oure 5-essencie is þe instrument of alle vertues of þing transmutable if þei be putt in it, encreessynge an hundrid foold her worchingis.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 20. By contynuall circulation of the matter transmutable, she maye brynge her pourpose to passe.
1652. French, Yorksh. Spa, ii. 6. All Elements are mutually transmutable into one the other.
1731. Hist. Litteraria, II. 379. Animal Substances are … more easily transmutable into animal Juices than vegetable.
1879. trans. De Quatrefages’ Hum. Spec., 39. Lamarck, Geoffroy, Darwin and his school, consider the species not only as variable but as transmutable.
1896. Buffalo (U. S.) Current Hist., VI. 3, note. Professor Dewar and others have shown the X rays to be transmutable into light rays affecting the eye.
† b. Liable to change, changeable, mutable.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 197. The world unsuyr, fortune transmutable.
1509. Hawes, Conv. Swearers, v. Worldly rychesse is often transmutable. Ibid. (1509), Past. Pleas., xiii. (Percy Soc.), 51. They nothing thynke on fortune variable, Whyche al theyr ryches shal make transmutable.
Hence Transmutably adv., in a transmutable manner; Transmutableness, transmutability.
1666. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual., I. ii. Some learned modern naturalists have conjectured at the easy transmutableness of water. Ibid. (1680), Produc. Chem. Princ., V. 265. The Aristotelian Hypothesis, of the transmutableness of what they call Elements.
1736. Bailey, (folio), Transmutably, in a manner capable of being chang’d.
